Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Confirms Ghost Rider for Season 4

In a serious ‘holy crap’ move, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. producers have gone and confirmed the once unthinkable; Ghost Rider will appear in the shows 4th season!

This is crazy news, although it was midly hinted at a little over a month ago when a train, all decorated for the big San Diego Comic Con, bore the Rider’s signature fiery chains, but the rumors were quickly dismissed as the show had already introduced another character wielding a similar weapon in the 3rd season. It was largely assumed that somehow the Inhuman character, known as Hellfire, would be taking on a larger role or have some kind of bigger story arch in the 4th season since rumors had largely speculated that Ghost Rider could be introduced sometime soon in one of Marvel’s Netflix series, which would make WAY more sense for a horror character like the Ghost Rider.

Earlier today at Comic Con, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel confirmed the Rider’s presence not only in the show, but also in the AoS comic line as well. The video reel that was originally shown at the con has since been released via the AoS Facebook page which you can watch below.

As to what role the Ghost Rider will play, it’s incredibly hard to say as the entirety of the MCU has yet to deal extra-dimensional characters. Apparently this will follow the Marvel NOW! version of the character, Robbie Reyes, instead of Johnny Blaze character that was portrayed in Sony’s Nick Cage version of the popular Marvel property. While it was originally presumed that Dr. Strange, set for release in theaters this November, would be the first MCU franchise to make the extra-dimensional leap, this latest news could suggest that the idea gets brought up much sooner as AoS is set to air late this September, a full 10 days before Marvel’s Luke Cage hit’s Netflix.

:::UPDATE:::

We just learned that the character of Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider will be played by Gabriel Luna, who played Miguel Gilb in HBO’s True Detective.

How will this effect the MCU? Will Ghost Rider only get a soft introduction in AoS? According to widespread industry rumors, it was sounding as though Ghost Rider might get introduced in Netflix’s MCU team-up franchise, The Defenders, which will see Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron First all come together to defend Hell’s Kitchen against a massive threat which has been rumored to be Dormammu, the lord of Marvel’s Dark Dimension, who, in the comics, often has ties to both Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange.

It is possible that all of these theories will hold true and serve to tie Marvel’s ABC, Netflix, and movie universes together better than they have been in the past, although with all of the alleged in-fighting between Marvel TV and Marvel Studios, it would be a stretch to assume that they’ve all of a sudden decided to make nice, but again, Marvel has proven time and time again that anything is possible.

What do you think? Are you happy to see the Rider’s return on AoS or is this a mistake? Should Marvel have skipped prime time with the Rider and gone straight to Netflix in order to do the character properly or can they make it work in the AoS weeknight timeslot? As always, let me know what you think in the comments section below.